138: Fish, Wine, and Letting Go of Ego in Southern France with Steve Hoffman

In the daily grind of work under capitalism, I'm sure I'm not alone for dreaming of something more to life. Usually, this takes the shape of going somewhere new in the world on vacation or picking up a new language and imagining what life would look like if you lived in that country and spoke that language with ease. For my guest today, this dream became a concrete and humbling reality. Tax preparer and food writer Steve Hoffman details his journey with his family in his beautiful new memoir, A Season for That: Lost and Found In The Other Southern France.

Steve is a French speaker and shameless Francophile who tirelessly works in his memoir to unearth the reality of his family's gradual acceptance into a tiny winemaking village in the Languedoc region of southern France. His writing has won multiple awards, including the 2019 James Beard MFK Fisher Distinguished Writing Award. He has been published in Food & Wine, The Washington Post, The Minneapolis Star Tribune, and Artful Living magazine.

In our conversation today, Steve shares some of the lessons he picked up about the unique winemaking and culinary traditions he experienced in Languedoc-Rousillon region, the role that food and ingredients played in helping his family become accepted in the village, the values of home cooking versus French cooking, and what it took as a food writer to get to a point with his memoir where he could approach his family's story with an honesty and earnestness I've not seen the likes of in other food memoirs.

Learn More About Steve:

• Steve's Book: A Season for That
• Instagram: @sjrhoffman
• Facebook: @sjrhoffmanwriter
• Website: https://www.sjrhoffman.com/